Teacher and peer participation in functional analysis and intervention for a first grade student with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.(Report)

Abstract

This study evaluated the current trend in functional analysis literature toward conducting the analysis in the classroom with teachers and peers. Procedures included a functional behavioral interview with the teacher, a descriptive observation, teacher training on the functional analysis procedures, a functional analysis, and implementing a socially valid and function-based classroom intervention. Functional analysis measures included the percentage of partial intervals in which the target behaviors (inappropriate vocalizations and disruptions) occurred as well as condition integrity for both the teacher and the peers. Classroom intervention measures included the rate of target behaviors and three descriptive variables: teacher and peer contingent attention to target behaviors and teacher praise. The results showed the function-based intervention effectively reduced the rate of target behaviors from baseline. The results also suggested general education teachers and peers are capable of participating in the functional analysis within the natural schedule of the classroom.

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DESCRIPTORS: Functional analysis, function-based intervention, noncontingent reinforcement, Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder

Traditionally, functional analysis identifies the relation between problem behavior and the environment through systematic manipulation in analogue settings. Specifically, it identifies reinforcers that maintain problem behavior, stimuli that signal reinforcement is available, and situations that make reinforcers more or less valuable (Carr, 1977; Iwata, Dorsey, Slifer, Bauman, & Richman, 1994). Recently, Hanley Iwata, and McCord (2003) reported extensions of functional analysis methods in natural settings where problem behavior occurs.

Generality of the functional analysis methodology has been found across behaviors, contingencies, clinical populations, and settings. However, little research demonstrates its extension into natural settings or describes the utility of conditions adapted to these settings. In such cases, the motivating operations and reinforcers in natural settings, such as activity-specific instructions or unique social rein-forcers provided by peers and teachers in schools, need to be identified. Therefore, individuals conducting functional analyses in school settings should consider including manipulated conditions in which teachers and peers deliver social reinforcers in order to form accurate hypotheses about behavioral functions (Broussard & Northup, 1995; Wehby, Symons, & Shores, 1995).

Researchers have begun to describe functional analyses conducted in the school setting (Ervin, Radford, Bertsch, Piper, Ehrhardt, & Poling, 2001; Sasso, Conroy Sticher, & Fox, 2001). For instance, Dun-lap et al. (1993) demonstrated the adaptability of functional analysis procedures to school settings. Broussard et al. (1995) showed the effect of peer attention as a reinforcer, and Lewis and Sugai (1996) as well as Kamps, Wendland, and Culpepper (2006) demonstrated that teachers were capable of running conditions.